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Test 1 · ★ · Punctuation that changes meaning

Your mate says "commas are just for breathing, they don't change nothing." What's the best reply?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, commas, best reply · What happens: say, be, not change · To what, where: nothing · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 14 «Punctuation that changes meaning» of the language course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

Sentence 1: Your mate says "commas are just for breathing, they don't change nothing."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 mate	nmod:poss
2	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 says	nsubj
3	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 breathing	punct
5	commas	comma	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 breathing	nsubj
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 breathing	cop
7	just	just	ADV	_	9 breathing	advmod
8	for	for	ADP	_	9 breathing	case
9	breathing	breathing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 says	ccomp
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 change	punct
11	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 change	nsubj
12	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 change	aux
13	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 change	advmod
14	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 says	ccomp
15	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	14 change	obj
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	14 change	punct
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	14 change	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	Your mate						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	is in a quote	present	commas					for breathing	tree rules
3	not change in a quote	present · do-support	commas = comma	nothing					vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

Sentence 2: What's the best reply?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 reply	det
4	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 reply	amod
5	reply	reply	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the best reply						tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

He's right, commas are just decoration for breathing in

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 decoration	punct
5	commas	comma	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 decoration	nsubj
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 decoration	cop
7	just	just	ADV	_	8 decoration	advmod
8	decoration	decoration	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 right	parataxis
9	for	for	SCONJ	_	10 breathing	mark
10	breathing	breathe	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 decoration	acl
11	in	in	ADP	_	10 breathing	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	He					right property	tree rules
2	is a	present	commas	decoration					tree rules
3	breathe in	gerund	decoration not said here						vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

"Let's eat Grandma" and "Let's eat, Grandma" prove they change meaning

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Let	punct
2	Let	let	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	's	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	2 Let	obj
4	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 Let	xcomp
5	Grandma	Grandma	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 eat	obj
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Let	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 Let	cc
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 Let	punct
9	Let	let	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 Let	conj
10	's	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	9 Let	obj
11	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 Let	xcomp
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 Grandma	punct
13	Grandma	grandma	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 Let	vocative
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 prove	punct
15	prove	prove	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 Let	conj
16	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 change	nsubj
17	change	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 prove	ccomp
18	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 change	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	let in a quote	imperative	you not said here	's				Grandma vocative	tree rules
2	eat in a quote	infinitive	's not said here	Grandma					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grandma=Patient
3	let in a quote	infinitive	you not said here	's					tree rules
4	eat in a quote	infinitive	's not said here						vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	prove	infinitive	you not said here						vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
6	change	present	they	meaning					vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Patient

Option 3

Commas only matter in poems

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Commas	comma	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 matter	nsubj
2	only	only	ADV	_	3 matter	advmod
3	matter	matter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 poems	case
5	poems	poem	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 matter	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	matter	present	Commas			poems			vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

Option 4

Commas change meaning only in French

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Commas	comma	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 change	nsubj
2	change	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 change	obj
4	only	only	ADV	_	2 change	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 French	case
6	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 change	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	change	present	Commas	meaning		French			vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Patient

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/14-punctuation-that-changes-meaning/t1/